Monday Progress Update: December 16th

I've been plugging away at Beatrice and a secret project that I can't show you.  I will show off pictures of Beatrice, though!

Reference: 

I started out by drafting the bodice.  I started with New Look #6584:

 The sleeveless bodice had the lines I was looking for, so I made a base/lining out of cotton muslin and boned it on each seam with 1/4" spiral bones.  I then covered the chest area with burgundy Casa satin and the rest of the bodice with brown Casa.

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I left the bottom free-hanging and draped it on my dummy, since the pattern was close-fitting to the hips and I needed it to flare out over the hoop.


Next I draped out the skirt.  I used Simplicity 1910:

It had a lot of pleating I had to drape out, but I couldn't find my favorite McCalls pattern for gored skirts, so I made do.  After draping and sewing the underskirt I used the pattern to cut the overskirt and draped it on the dummy, cutting the scalloped hem.


Next I went for mocking up sleeves.  I used the sleeve from Simplicity 9891:

I was really lucky because it fit the bodice hole with little alteration needed.  I cut the base of the sleeve out of burgundy muslin, but I needed to create a pattern for those puffs, so I slashed and spread the base pattern of my mock-up to create the stacked puffs:

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 Next I ironed on the gold trim.  The sleeves are ready to be sewn together now:

 Here it is with the bodice over the skirt mockup.  Wow, this shows just how much I need to put netting on that hoop, the hoop show-through is horrible!